


Nothing In Between Me And The Rain

by waltzmatildah



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 01:14:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10843449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waltzmatildah/pseuds/waltzmatildah
Summary: An AU ending to the season 6 epsiode,Invasion.





	Nothing In Between Me And The Rain

She folds the note unevenly, an unsuccessful attempt to hide words she's only just penned but already completely forgotten. The veil of salt-water she's fighting off makes precision almost impossible as she pushes the page into his locker hastily. Nausea threatens, an all too familiar physical state brought about by a situation so wholly foreign she wonders if perhaps she's imagined it all.

The heavy door to the resident's lounge swings open and she flinches visibly, tilts her head forward, forgets for a moment that she no longer has a mane of tumbling blonde to hide behind.

Keeps her eyes on her toes instead as she picks an unsteady path around the intruder and makes her way to the door.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

She hesitates at the main entrance. Remembers a time when stepping inside the hospital had become an impossibility. Feels the reverse slide firmly into place as she contemplates an inexplicably sudden inability to leave.

Knows with out needing to think about it that once she does she'll never make it back.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

George's grave site has aged enough by now that it no longer looks out of place. Like maybe he's right where he belongs.

Though she doubts she'll ever fully believe that.

She sinks to seated on the damp grass and leans her back against the letters that spell out his name. Feels the cold seep through her denim jeans, settle somewhere deep in the marrow of her bones.

Can't even contemplate the energy standing up will require.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

A hand settling, feather-light atop her shoulder, startles her violently from her reverie and she twists, throws herself to the side with a muted scream. Rights herself again amid a barrage of panicked apologies and impossibly soft hands that fight to catch her face in their grip.

She closes her eyes. Lets herself be caught.

Folds into Louise O'Malley's arms like they might offer her the salvation she didn't yet know she was seeking.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

They go for coffee and over the froth sticky lip of her steaming mug she finds herself confessing the morning's duck and run tactics without stopping to take a breath.

The calm understanding that she receives in return is almost her complete undoing.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

It's easier than she thought it would be. Stepping back through the glass doors. Letting them slide soundlessly to closed behind her back. The rubber soles of her still damp shoes send a high pitched wail through the cavernous entrance as she switches from a tentative walk to an all out sprint in the space of three strides.

Ignores the bewildered glances she receives as she rounds corners without caution and sends an instrument tray skittering along the length of the corridor.

Figures it's too late for them to fire her anyway, and crazy has been her default setting for so long now that most of the staff barely even look up as she streaks past.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

The scrawled note is still where she'd abandoned it. Tucked in tight against the sleeve of his jacket. She lunges for it, barely stalls herself to stationery before she's tearing the words into strips and shreds. Letting them confetti the floor at her feet, a white paper snow of betrayal that she's only just managed to salvage.

Looks up in time to see Alex step through the doorway, face creased into naïve confusion.

“Are you okay?”

And the wave of hysteria she's been so desperately fighting against for the best part of the day, for the best part of the last six months, finally starts its victory march.

“I got fired. The chief fired me.”

“He what?”

She's laughing so completely that breathing has become an impossibility.

“But seriously, screw him. I'm not going anywhere.”


End file.
